VacationSelector
The Hôtel du Palais, Biarritz
BiarritzThe Hôtel du Palais
The top of the Mountaintop Express lift on Vail Mountain, Vail
VailThe top of the Mountaintop Express lift on Vail Mountain

Photos: Biarritz by Lilipiapia, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Vail by DReifGalaxyM31, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Biarritz or Vail?

Our verdict in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities, and the climate month by month, so you can choose for your trip.

Choose Biarritz for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Biarritz’s own page.

Choose Vail for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Vail’s own page.

Scoreboard

Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.

Beaches & swimming. Biarritz 68, Vail 5: Biarritz leads by 63 points.
Food & drink. Biarritz 62, Vail 35: Biarritz leads by 27 points.
Culture & sights. Biarritz 33, Vail 10: Biarritz leads by 23 points.
Nightlife. Biarritz 36, Vail 30: Biarritz leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Biarritz 74, Vail 92: Vail leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Biarritz 80, Vail 45: Biarritz leads by 35 points.
Good for families. Biarritz 62, Vail 55: Biarritz leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Biarritz 58, Vail 62: Vail leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Biarritz 42, Vail 35: Biarritz leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Biarritz 30, Vail 5: Biarritz leads by 25 points.
Live music & performing arts. Biarritz 38, Vail 42: Vail leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Biarritz 64, Vail 48: Biarritz leads by 16 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Biarritz and Vail.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Biarritz
Best match
54match

Wins on beaches and day trips with your weighting.

Vail
39match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and getting around with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Biarritz in July

24 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
97 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Vail in July

29 °Cdaytime high
9 °Cnight-time low
35 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
BiarritzVail

Where the figures come from

Vail's temperatures are measured 47 km from the centre, at Kremmling.

Vail's station stands 186 m below the city centre, so the centre is likely a little cooler than the figures say.

Vail has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Biarritz: 1999-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Biarritz (2.5 km from centre). Vail: 2006-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Kremmling (46.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBiarritzVail
Official languageFrench-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation0 m2,445 m
Main airportBiarritz Pays Basque airport (BIQ)3 km from centre25 non-stop destinationsEagle County Regional Airport (EGE)48 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureBiarritzVail
City population26,2064,835
People per km²2,240400
Museums within 10 km81
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C2 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Biarritz or Vail somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Rainfall where no rain gauge is within 25 km is from the TerraClimate 1991-2020 climatology (Abatzoglou et al. 2018, Scientific Data), read at the city. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Non-stop route lists from the "Airlines and destinations" tables on English Wikipedia airport articles, by Wikipedia contributors, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Currency from the ISO 4217 register maintained by SIX, cross-checked against country data from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. Time zones from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); clock offsets computed from the IANA time zone database. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.